Air eliminator for fluid flow mechanisms



R. S. SMITH May 4,1943.

AIR ELIMINATR FOR FLUID FLOW MECHANISMS Original Filed VNOV. 26, 1937 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 fiar/legs.

May 4 1943- R. s. sMm-l 2,318,264

AIR ELIMINATOR FOR FLUID FLOWMECHANISMS Original Filed Nv. 26, 1957 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 R. S. SMITH -May 4, 1943.

AIR ELIMINATOR FOR FLUID FLOW MECHANISMS Original Filed Nov. 26, l937 3 Sheets-:Sheet 3 Patented May 4,

OFFICE Am ELnmNA'ron Fon FLUrn FLow MEcnANrsMs- Reuben Stanley Smith, Altadena, Calif., assignor to Smith Meter Company, Los Angeles, Calif., a corporation oi' California Original application No 1940, serial No. 341,075

z claims. (Cl. 137-69) This invention related Agenerally to air eliminators and uid-fiow control devices, andis a division'of my copending application Serial No.

176,573, illed November 26, 1937, entitled Fluid ow mechanism, now Patent No. 2,263,145, issued November 18, 1941.

vember 26, 1937, serial N6. Divided and this application June 17.

fluid levels insofar as they are concerned with the operation of the eliminator.

Cil

While the invention may be 'applied with advantage to and utilized in ,combination with uid flow mechanisms of diiferent types, it is particularly well adaptable to utilization in connection with liquid meters, in which situation it serves to free and withdraw entrained air. from the liquid stream before that stream passes to the measuring chamber of the meter, thus 'preventing .the obviously undesirable inclusion of air in the measurement-registration of liquid flow.

- The general object of the invention is to provide relatively simple, but surely and accurately acting means whereby the separation and disposal of the originally entrained air may be accomplished with great efliciency.

Other objects and features of novelty may be made more clearly apparent in connection with the following detailed description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, wherein/-r Fig. 1 is a medial sectional viewl of my im. proved device, with a portion of the associated meter shown in elevation, the section through the cap of the air eliminator being taken on line I-I of Fig. 4; Fig. 2 is a reduced, top plan viewof Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is an enlargedA section on lineI 3-3 of Fig. 1;l Fig. 4 is an enlarged plan view `of the air eliminator with the head-'cap removed;

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary section on line 5'5 of Fig. 1; v Fig. 6v is a section on line 6-6of Fig. 1; and Fig. 7 is a fragmentary section on line l-l of Fig. 3.

'I'he meter, proper, is indicated generally at I I0, whila the air-eliminator and ow control is*v generally indicated at II.

The meter may be of any suitablatyp, and

` the fact that it is here illustrated Aas correspond-A ing generally to the meter described in said application Serial No. 176,573 is not to beJ construed as in any way limitative. and willv describe only suilicient structure to enable me to explain the`- association `of the aireliminator with ycertain typical meter' partsl and to explain the path Aof uid'iiow and clertain Rotor I6 is mounted concentrcally within barrel `llby.shaft4 I1, the annular space I8 thus de- I have shown The illustrated meter is of the rotary type wherein blades are shuttl'ed successively across and sweep through the flow channel during rotation of the blade-supporting rotor. The

`meter casing generally indicated at I2 includes.

a `vertically arranged barrel I3 closed at'its bottom and top by detachable end walls made up of base and cover I4 and I5, respectively.

ned by the rotor and casing comprising the ilow channel of the meter. I9 is interposed in the flow channel, being secured to barrel I3 at 20, and comprises an arcuate plate portion 2I and a diagonal partition wall 22 (Fig. 7).

Opening to flow channel I8 near the bottom of and at one side of wall 22, is inlet'passage 23, while the-ow channel opens at the top and opposite side of wall 22 to thesubstantially vertically extending outlet passage 24 provided in the cover member I5 of the meter housing.

Blades 25 are supported by rotor I6 and are adapted to be projected across the ow channel while opposite barrier I9, and then tractedI to clear ,the barrier, by co-action be,`

tween the blade-carried rollers 26 andthe stascribe any of these elements or their operation in detail', as they play no partin the present invention=except insofar as they function in connection'with the air-eliminator.

I have indicated generally at 28 a registrationb mechanism for indicating the amount of fluidow through themeter; It will suiiice forthe present purpose to state that suitable mechanism (not shown) is adapted to connect rotor Iliand registration mechanism 28 contained in counter housing 29. on cover I 5, whereby that registering mechanism is adapted to indicate the amount of uid flow. The registering mechanism is actually a rotor-revolution counter; it having 'been predetermined that the meter passes a certain-volume of uid per rotor-revolution and the counter having been calibrated in suitably correlated volumetric units.

The faucet valve for controlling the Imeasured delivery of uid from the meter, is generally indicated at30.` Full details of structure and operation lof this valve, which is here illus- Dividing block or barrier4 to be retratedlinerely as an example i.' one type of valve which may be used, are set forth and certain features thereof are claimed in my copending application'entitled Faucet valve, led January 19, 1938, Serial No. 185,782. It will suillce here to say4 that valve 30 includes-al disk stopper 3|-carried on an arm 32 extended from rock shaft 33. Shaft 33 is journalled in housing 34, the latter being secured to the off-set portion 35 of cover I5 by bolts 36. In closed condition (fulllines of Fig. 1). disk 3| engages seat 36 on housing 34, while rotation of sha-ft 33 by external handle 31 operates to move the disk to the open position indicated in dotted lines, where it occupies off-set chamber 38 dened byhousing-portion 35. Housing 34 has an outlet neck 39 to which attachment of a delivery pipe or line (not shown) is made. It will be seen that chamber 38 is in communica-l tion with outlet passageway 24 and that it lies at the meter side of disk 3| when the latter is in closed position.

, Base I4 has a diametricaliy extending throughpassage or screen chamber 40 whose inlet end, indicated at 4|, serves as an inlet to the meter,

proper. Within chamber 40 is a reduced-diameter, cylindrical screen assembly 42,'the fluid y entering inlet 4| passing longitudinally through the screen assembly and being filtered or screened as it passes radiallyoutward into chamber 40, the latter having an upwardly opening passageway 43 which communicates with inlet passage- -way 23 and hence with `flow channel I8. y

Assuming valve 30 is open, the fluid traverses the following path: Inlet 4|, screen 42, chamber .40, passageway 43, inlet passageway 23, flow channel |8, outlet passageway 24 and through the bore of neck 39 to pointof delivery. As described, briefly above, the fluid in its passage through flow channel I8 causes rotor-rotation and blade-shuttling, with the rotor-rotation imsquare-cut-ends 69 of the blades engaging pipe l5I as a positive stop to prevent counter-clockwise movement from the full-line position of Fig. 1 and thus establishing the closed Position of the valve.

By reason of this offset arrangement of the valve blades, I overcome the depression eiect usual to most valves of this type, which acts I(as such valves are initially opened and by reason-- of the rapid iluid-ilowpast the enc? of one of the angularly disposed blades) in a manner tending to reclose the valve and thus materially to interfere with the nice balancenecessary to suc- I cessful operation of a oat-operated butterfly parting operativel drive to the registering mechanism 28.

-The air eliminator and flow regulator includes a cylindrical barrelor casing extending vertically from the integral and horizontally extending casing or'pi'pe 5|, the bore or floatchamber 52 of casing 50 opening at 53.to horizontal bore 54. One end of pipe 5| has an 812-. tachment flange 5|' applied by bolts 55 to the side of meter base I4, whereby eliminator bore 54 is put into communication with meter-inlet 4|. The opposite end of. pipe 5| has a fitting 56 applied to its attachment flange 56-by bolts 51, the inlet or stand-pipe 58 being secured to fitting 56' by elbow 59.

within pipe here ,s4 at the right (Fig. 1) off float-chamber opening 53,..is a ow-control valve 60 (Fig. 6). This valve, of the butterily type,

' is circular, as viewed axially of the pipe, and

is of a diameter to llt bore 54. It includes a.' horizontal hub 6| taking shaft 62 whereby the valve is mounted for oscillatory movement toand from closed position. Shaft 62 has bearing in bores '63 in the pipe-wall, while plugs,64 hold the shaft against end-wise displacement, one, at least, of the plugs being removed to allow assembly or disassembly of the valve and its shaft within bore 54.

Valve or disk 60 may be considered as made up of two blades 65 and 66, said blades lying at opposite sides of the vertical axial plane of shaft 62. In closed position each blade has a diagonally extending inner portion 61, while the outer portion l(i8 extends substantially vertically. the

Crank 111extends through a slot 18 in plate 19 which is in an integral part of cap 80. Cap 80 is bolted at 8| to flange 82 of casing 50, and may be.

considered as making up a' portion voi. the top closure or head generally indicated at 83. -Head 83 is completed by cap 84, secured to cap 80 by Abolts 84 (Fig. 2). Gaskets 85 and 86 are inter- -posed between cap 80 and casing 50 at one side and caps 80 and 84, at the other side..

Bell crank 11 is pivotally supported by a pin 81 (Fig. 4) supported from plate :I9 by boss 88. Also extending from plate 19 -is an elongated boss 89' (Fig. 2) winch has a vertical bore 90 extending from its upper machined face 9| .toy horizontal bore 92 which extends horizontally to boss 93 atg the outer edge of the cap andl which provides a threaded socket 94 for the reception ofJby-pass-4 pipe 95. f

Sliding on face 9| of boss 89, is a slide valve 96, which may be conveniently made up -of a disk of such material as Catalan. Disk 96 has a central socket 91 adapted to take the lower end of pin 98 which is carried by arm 99 pivotally connected at |00 to arm 16' of bell crank 11. Pivot pin |00 is extended to receive a coiled torsion spring |0I, the looped extremities of which engage cotter key |02 carried by the pivot pin andtransverse pin |03 carried by arm 99, respec- A tively. The effect of this spring is to tend to rotate arm 99 in a counter-clockwise direction (as gage disk 96 with face 9|, said face and disk being lapped to insure full-area contact. Spring I0| thus acts to hold disk 96 flat against face 9| irrespective of the bodily left or right sliding movement imposed on that disk-'by virtueof bell crank movement, the t between pin 98 and'socket 91 being sufiiciently free to allow slight rocking movement of Athe pin during such bell crank movement. 'Ihe disk is also capable of rotation about the pin-thus giving it self-cleaning and self-lapping characteristics.

' The-upper end of pin 98 is extended into close proximity with the underface of cover 84, to prevent, during shipment or rough handling, a sufficient extent of clockwise movement of arm 99 as accidentally todislodge pin 98 from socket 91.

11; will appear that lwhen neat 1o rises from the full line of Fig. 1 to the dotted linel position, bell crank 11 will be rotated clockwise, thereby bodily drawing arm 99 and disk 96 to the right and y causing said disk to close oi passageway 90.V

with bell crank 16, there thus being no necessity for providing guides and guideways, or the like,- common to most float valves, which arevery likely to stick or bind the oats. Of course, in its vertical travel, the float will have a vcomponent of horizontal bodily movement but this is in no way disadvantageous since ample annular clearance is left between the oat and chamber 52.

In the normal condition of the entire system and with faucet valve 30 closed,the meter will be completely lled with' uld and the uid in chamber 52 will hold oat 10i-n its yuppermost p0- sition (dotted lines in Fig. 1) wherein the airoutlet valve generally-indicated atv V, made up of boss 89 and disk 96, is closed, and regulator valve 60 is in the open position, both as indicated by dotted lines.

Air will be trapped in the air chamber .A above the uid in chamber 52, as well as in the valve chamber B. In this condition, valve 60 oiers no appreciable resistance to the ow of uid through bore 54 and thence through the meter to outlet 39 when faucet 30 is open However, should there ybe air entrained in the incoming iluid, it will naturally seek to rise therethrough and, upon reaching a point below the float chamber will passupwardly through the float chamber liquid and into air chamber A, it thus being trapped and prevented from passing through the meter to. cause a false indication by counter |94.

-As the air gathers within chamber A, it downwardly displaces the fluid within the oat chamber and raises the air the wal/lof the oat position, the rush of uid through neck 39 will tend to create a depression aboutihe outlet of the by-pass and thus aid in quickly and suddenly emptying chambers A and B of the excess air.'

It will be noted that the elevation of outlet port 39 with reference to the flow channel I8 of the meter is such that when the fluid supply, to which pipe 58 is connected, becomes exhausted so that the level of such inlet fluid is depressed to a point substantiallylevel with the outlet 39, as 1ndicated by the'dotted line Y, ow will cease, but the meter ow channel will have a suiiicient volume of .fluid trapped below this level to remain completely lled and thus exclude air from the meter channels and prevent drainage of the rotor chamber or other meter channels.

When the supply tank is relled and additional uid passes into the eliminator, the meter operation is resumed without inaccuracies of measurement' which-might exist if air had been admitted to the meter channels:

While lI have shown and described a preferred embodiment of my invention, it will be understood that various changes in design, structure and arrangement may be made without departing from the spirit 'and scope of the appended claims.

pressure within that chamber. The float drops as the'uid is displaced,

thus. shifting valve-diskl 96 .toward full-line position in Fig. 1. scends, it tends to move e left or tion, acts as a baille to more de'nitely direct the uid with its entrained air into. the float chamber, to give that air a better and longer opportunity -to rise to chamber A.

' Asig heffloat devalve Ward closed position and this valve, in its partly closed posiwhen the air within the chamber has gathered to an extent suicient to drop the float to a position where air-valveV is opened, the air, under its built-up pressure, will ii'ow throuh passageway 90 and 92I into by-pass tube 95, and by this action chamber A will be drained of air sufliciently to allow fluid again to rise in the float chamber until valve V is again coming uid contains entrained air, lthese intermittent air-releases will occur.

Broadly, by-pass of delivery, but since it usually contains explosive vapors, it is preferred that it be led back into the line at a point beyond the measuring chamber o! the meter. Accordingly, I have here shown pipe 95 as being tapped back into faucet-chamber closed. vSo long as the inchamber, an exhaust line leading from the air chamber, and a slide valve connected to and operated by said float and movable by float reciprocation to open and close said exhaust line, said slide valve embodying a block having a vertical passageway opening to the top surface thereof, a closure bodily slidable over the top of the block to and from positions closing said opening, a spring-actuated arm holding the closure infacial engagement with said top surface throughout its sliding stroke andsaid slide Valve connection including a bell crank operatively connected to said oat and said arm.

2. In an air eliminator, a casing defining a substantially horizontal liquid-now passagehav- 'ing anl inlet and an outlet end, a iioat chamber above and in communication at its lower end with' the passage between its inlet and outlet ends, and an air chamber above and in communication at itsv lower end with the iloat chamber; a iloat mounted for vertical reciprocation in' said oat chamber by virtue of changes in the liquid level therein, an exhaust line leading from the air chamber, and a valve connected to and operated by float reciprocation toopen and close `the exhaust line, saidv valve embodying a member having a port extending from one face thereof to said I .said face to and from positions closing said port,

pipe 954 may run to any point a spring-actuated-arm holding the closure in engagement with said Iace throughut its sliding stroke: and said slide valve connection including a lever pivoted to said casing, a connection between said oat and said lever at one side of its pivotal point, anda connection between said arm and said lever at thev other point.

REUBEN STANLEY SMITH.

air chamber, la closure bodily slidable over,

side o i its pivotal 

